Homer · Ancient Greek · c. 8th century BCE
The Odyssey
Every English Odyssey is a different poem. The question here is not which printing to buy but whose voice you want in your head for twenty-four books.
- Translations compared
- 8
- Editions in print
- 11
- Verse
- 7
- Prose
- 1
The short answer
Wanting the grand, familiar one
Robert Fagles
Expansive and dramatic, with Bernard Knox's introduction.
Richmond Lattimore
The classroom standard for decades, with lines that match the Greek for citing.
Staying close to Homer's lines
Richmond Lattimore
Line by line and formal. The most literal of the eight.
Not quite it? Compare all 8 translations ↓
Links to buy are ordinary links for now. Once we join affiliate programmes they will earn us a small commission, which will not change what we recommend. More about how we are paid.
| Translator | Form | Literal to free | Voice | In the book | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emily Wilson | Iambic pentameter, matching the Greek line count | Plain, quick, contemporary | Long introduction, maps, notes, glossary | ||
| Robert Fagles | Loose five- and six-beat verse, longer than the Greek | Muscular, dramatic, expansive | Introduction and notes by Bernard Knox, maps, genealogies, pronunciation guide | ||
| Richmond Lattimore | Six-beat line, following the Greek line by line | Formal, stately, sometimes stiff | Not yet checked | ||
| Daniel Mendelsohn | Six-beat line, line for line | Elevated, dense, attentive to Homer's repetitions | Introduction, notes and commentary, glossary of proper nouns, pronunciation guide | ||
| Peter Green | Long line echoing the hexameter | Scholarly, exact, unhurried | Introduction, maps, book summaries, glossary, notes | ||
| Stanley Lombardo | Short free-verse lines | Colloquial, spare, made to be spoken | Introduction by Sheila Murnaghan | ||
| Robert Fitzgerald | Flexible blank verse | Lyrical, inventive, Greek name spellings | Introduction by D. S. Carne-Ross, map, glossary of names and places, translator's postscript | ||
| E. V. Rieu | Prose | Reads like a novel | Introduction by Peter Jones |
No translation matches this filter.
The first line, four ways
The same opening in each voice. Older translations are quoted in full; modern ones appear as short excerpts once the publisher grants permission.
Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy.
The man for wisdom's various arts renown'd,
Long exercised in woes, O Muse! resound;
Wilson's opening lines will appear here once the publisher grants permission.
Fagles's opening lines will appear here once the publisher grants permission.
Wilson's translation, in three books
Once you have chosen a translator, these are the printings of that text worth buying.
